A Night of Dragon Wings

LEGION



Legion licked his chops and snapped his teeth and slashed his claws. He grinned and howled and tasted the blood of dragons.

"We are strong!" he said, his cry rising and tearing the air and cracking trees and boulders. He flapped his wings and rose upon fire. "We feed! We feed!"

Across the ruins, the Fallen Horde roared, swirled across the sky, and covered the ground, an endless swarm. His children screamed and laughed and flew around him, thousands of his spawn torn from the wombs of his wives. Already more nephilim rutted in the dirt, and rotted wombs swelled, and more beasts burst through flesh to feast upon their mothers.

"The world imprisoned us!" Legion cried. They answered his call with thousands of screams. "Now we kill. Now we eat. Now we drink blood. We are the nephilim! We were the Fallen. Now we rise! We rise!"

Countless screams shook the world, boulders rolled, trees fell, and the ruins crumbled below.

"We rise!" the nephilim howled. "We rise!"

Legion flew around them, blood roaring, halo flaming, tongue licking, wings beating. He rose. He rose! He fed. He ate! He killed. Solina freed him! He was a god. He was Prophet. He was Legion.

"The dragons cower!" he shouted. "The world trembles. We are strong! We are Nephil. We are Enemy. We are Nemesis. Our jaws will crush their spines!"

As he flew drooling, he caressed his belly. His own womb swelled, and he felt the vermin kicking and biting inside, drinking his blood and eating his innards.

Soon, precious spawn, he thought. Soon you will burst from me too, and you will eat my flesh, and you will grow to lead this swarm.

He landed upon the roof of the crumbling temple. Blasts of fire burst from within. The flames sprayed from every window and hole. One flame blasted not two feet from Legion, clawing at the sky, and heat baked him. The vermin bustled inside his womb, and Legion heard their muffled screams.

Yes, Legion thought, yes, the fire burns us, my vermin. But not for long. They are weak. They are afraid. We will eat them, and their blood will nourish us.

He spread his wings wide, curtains of black leather, and raised his claws. His halo blazed and screamed. He howled to the sky of nephilim, and they swirled above and around him, a storm of rot.

"Tear down these walls!" he shouted. "Drag the beasts out and rip them apart! Feast, nephilim. We rise! We rise!"

They howled around him and the ruins shook.

"We rise!"